2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Hi everyone!

Time to nominate books for November! The theme is Original.

~Please remember to state a connection to the theme when you nominate.

~Books we have read less than three years ago are not eligble. To see which books are not eligble, see this google sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

~ Each person can nominate 1 book.

~ Book must be available both as a physical copy and as an ebook.

~ Authors: Please do not nominate your own book.

~ Please do not nominate books that are part of a series, unless it is the first book.

~ You can second someone else's nomination, but that will count as your nomination.


This thread will be closed by September 26th, and we will choose ten books for the poll. If there are more than ten books nominated, we will choose "seconded" books first. If there is still a tie to get into the top ten, we'll go back to the Goodreads average rating to see which is highest.

I'd like to nominate The Sword of Shannara because according to Goodreads the series name is The Original Shannara Chronicles

Ashleigh wrote: "I'd like to nominate The Sword of Shannara because according to Goodreads the series name is The Original Shannara Chronicles"

I'll second this. I just did a search on my shelves on here looking for a book containing 'original' and The Sword of Shannara came up

I nominate The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Charles Dicken's last novel before his death. Dickens's original thoughts for a title were 'The Flight of Edwin Drood', 'The Disappearance of Edwin Drood', and my personal favorite- 'Dead? or Alive?' Despite not knowing what happens to Drood, as the original ending went to the grave with Dickens, this book is a great read. Hundreds of theories are written about what Dickens's intent was for the original ending.

I second The Mystery of Edwin Drood

I would like to nominate The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Simply put, the concept of the novel is quite original and unique, & at the time it was published, it was something readers really hadn't seen in literature before.

I nominate “Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World” by Adam Grant. This book was recommended to me by a friend and has been on my TBR shelf for a while now.

URL: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

I’d like to nominate Dracula by Bram Stoker as it is seen as one of the original vampire stories and is also unique in its story telling method.

Hola!
I'd like to nominate A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

This book is shelved as "One of a kind", so it shouts "original" to me 😉

Part of me REALLY wanted to nominate House of Leaves, but seeing as it's not available as an e-book, I'll spare you all the mindblowing headaches (even though I still highly recommend it).

Instead, my nomination is a more accessible, yet a fine example of ergodic literature, which in my mind classifies as "original" on its own merit.
So, S. by J.J. Abrams, because of it's original, and unique concepts, and formatting.

I second S.. I've had this on my shelf for a few years.

I nominate Elektra because it retells an original myth

I'll second A Monster Calls. Excellent book. Great on audio narrated by Jason Isaacs

I'd like to nominate A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin for its original magic system.

Ilona wrote: "I'd like to nominate A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin for its original magic system."

That is a great book. I will second it.

Thanks for all the nominations! The poll is up: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2....